Americans extremely wary of Chinese goods: Poll

[OhioChick]

Source: Zee News/India

Washington, Aug 08: US consumers are extremely wary of products made in China in the wake of a series of safety scandals, with nearly two-thirds saying they would support a boycott of Chinese goods, a poll showed on Tuesday.

Asked by pollster Zogby International whether they were concerned about buying Chinese products, 82 percent of respondents said yes and only 30 percent said they believed food imports from China were safe.

"The recent warnings and recalls about toxic toothpaste, tainted pet food, contaminated seafood and lead paint-laced toys from China haven't gone unnoticed by American consumers," Zogby said in a statement.

A range of Chinese exports, from fish and toys to pet food and toothpaste, have been found to be mislabeled, unsafe or dangerously contaminated, tainting the "made in China" brand and creating an international backlash.



Read more: http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=387595&ssid=51&ssname=World&sid=BUS&sname=LATEST-BUSINESS-NEWS

---

Wonder why? :sarcasm:

[mikeytherat]

1. The parking lot at Wal-Mart says otherwise.

It is full. All the time.

mikey_the_rat

[SayWhatYo]

7. :D I've never understood the walmart love that so many have...

I hate that place.

[Deja Q]

10. They sell goods claimed to have been made in the US, Mexico, and elsewhere too.

As to what their consumers do buy, I dunno.

Given the quality of Chinese goods, people would probably buy them for the lowest price anyway. Why pay hard earned money for easily breakable garbage?

[Bitwit1234]

2. You can go to WalMart and NOT buy goods from China

You can go anywhere and not buy Chinese manufactured goods. I look. I don't buy...Look at the back of the cans in super markets. See where there are from, if China or ANY foreign market just don't buy. Again I don't..

[parkia00]

4. No foreign products?!

No French wine? No Japanese sake? No Belgium chocolate? No Israeli dates? No Italian olive oil? Sheesh! Since when did worries about products from one place been an excuse to snuff out all imports? There's always a segment of American society that always have problems with anything "foreign". Not saying you are one of these narrow minded folk that is.

[Virginia Dare]

5. Possible, but extremely difficult and time consuming..

and you would burn up tons of gas running from store to store. For example, shoes are particularly difficult items to find. Country of origin labeling is extremely deficient and misleading as well.

[Critters2]

14. All the shoes I own were made in the US

I don't buy anything made in China. It can be done, with a little effort. And no, I don't go running from store to store. There's this thing called the internet. I use that to find American-made goods, and to find where they're sold. I call local stores to see if they carry the item or will order it for me. If not, I order it from a website.

For instance, my New Balance shoes were made in the US. I found a store that carries New Balance, and called to see if they had the style I wanted. They didn't, but would order it. And thus, I have American-made shoes. My Okabashi sandals--also American-made--I bought online.

For bargains, I buy things, especially clothes, secondhand. None of my money goes to China.

[Virginia Dare]

15. Yes, I'm familiar with the Internet, thanks...

and I realize it can be done, but you are one of a very small minority of people who are willing to go to those lengths to do that, as you have to do that for every single item you purchase, not just shoes, that was my point.

[closeupready]

25. Not true. I do that also.

It's not that hard. Once you know certain products are imported from China, you can begin compiling a kind of database of China-made goods and ditto for other countries.

[kath]

19. I bought NewBalance shoes, and they were made in China.

They used to be American-made, but not any more. Check the labels.

[Critters2]

20. Some styles are, some aren't

You have to check carefully to find the American-made styles. I have to be even more careful, because I'm vegan--no leather for me.

Here's where I find the American-made ones...
http://www.nbwebexpress.com/information/madeinusa.asp?page=1

[kath]

22. Thanks for that link - it's a great resource.

[Critters2]

31. You're welcome!! nt

[customerserviceguy]

38. Sometimes they lie

I worked as a temp for a few days for a place that took parts out of "Made in France" boxes, and put them into hoppers going into a machine to assemble them. At the other end of the line, the labels I slapped on the boxes said "Made in the USA".

I don't have a problem with France, but if they could legally do that, then who's to say that your shoe components did not originate in China?

[Dervill Crow]

32. There are only a couple of styles New Balance shoes that are American made.

I had to go to Nordstrom to buy the American-made New Balance shoes, but GI Joe's--oops, now just Joe's--had Chinese-made ones.

I would like to buy new cookware, but everything I have found that is made in the US costs as much as the Kelley Blue Book on my car. Trying to find anything made here is extremely difficult.

[Miss Chybil]

3. Hey, I participated in that poll! nt

[ixion]

6. I have yet to see a quality product of any kind come from the Chinese Mfg industry

everything is cheaply designed, using substandard materials. That has been consistent.

[SayWhatYo]

8. I got some pretty good fireworks a long time ago. :P

[Virginia Dare]

16. Here is an interesting article that addresses that specifically..

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/06/AR2007080601521.html

-snip-

At one point, Buzzell ends up drinking beer with young businessmen, two Brits and one American, who explain the brave new world of globalization.

"Back home, there's this place that used to make these tile bricks," one of the Brits tells Buzzell. "The problem was, they lasted for 80 years. The Chinese make their bricks for cheap, and theirs last only 18 months, which means in 18 months you have to buy more bricks, thus it's good for the economy because it keeps everybody with a job."

"Is that why everything I buy from China falls apart so fast?" Buzzell asks.


"Exactly!" the Brit says. "It keeps everybody with a job."


The whole article is very interesting...

[ryanmuegge]

23. The guitars from there are getting better.

Speaking from experience...At least the ones from the big name brands. Unfortunately, they're probably finished with lead paint ;).

But, yeah, I generally agree with you.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

27. Eastman jazz guitars (made in China) are outstanding hand-crafted instruments

http://www.eastmanstrings.com/eastmanguitars/workshop/tour.html

But they're not that cheap. I think they go from somewhere between $2000 and $4000. But that's cheap compared to American hand-made jazz guitars.

[ryanmuegge]

29. Oh, yeah. For something handmade, that's very cheap.

I was thinking more along the lines of the Epiphone Les Pauls.

Even the $100 SX guitars (the Fender knockoffs, at least) from rondomusic.net are almost up to Mexican Fender standard.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

30. I have a Washburn nylon string guitar made in China that's pretty good

for the price. It's one of those acoustic/electrics with cutaway. It doesn't have the tone of a fine Spanish made guitar, but it's got a solid spruce top and is very precisely constructed with very accurate intonation. The electronics are Swedish made. And the price was right: $190 bought brand new through Music123.

[Progressive_In_NC]

34. Wow, they must be using the 9 year old illegal labor

rather than the six year olds.

[B3Nut]

36. They make some nice affordable condenser mics

Shanghai Feilo Electronics and Beijing 797 Audio are two manufacturers of good studio microphones that don't cost an arm and a leg. Yeah, I'd have German Neumann and AKG if I could afford 'em, but I can't. These two OEM's make a lot of the low-cost studio mics sold under various "known" brands. The Studio Projects mic line proudly emblazons their microphones with the 797 Audio logo, touting their partnership with the OEM. I have a pair of MXL603s small-diaphragm condenser mics that were inexpensive, but are solidly-made and sound really good. I love 'em on acoustic guitar, drum overheads, and on Leslie.

Small Chinese shops build some lovely high-end audiophile tube amplifiers as well, and some Chinese tubes are pretty good too, though I prefer Sovtek and the Slovakian JJ tubes.

The Chinese-made Ibanez Artcore guitars are fantastic semi and full-hollow electrics for the money.

I still try to buy US, Japan, and Korea though...China's a last resort when at all possible.

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[unkachuck]

24. I bought a small, cheap....

....Chinese made window air-conditioner 5 years ago for $89 and it works just fine....easy on electricity too, at 520 watts....

....I turn it on at the end of May and off at the end of September and it's still going strong....

[KoKo]

9. I think the "quality" problem has been going on so long it's probably worse than we know.

And, the massive influx of Chines goods has been stronger in the last three years. It's Bush's deals with China so they'd buy our bonds. The more we import the faster the Chinese have to produce and the downsizing and outsourcing of our Textiles and leather goods there has caused such dominance that there shoddy and corrupt practices are flourishing in China..a country not known for having "quality control" that it took us the post industrial revolution in the West to put in place.

Also American companies have taken advantage of loose environmental standards and lack of inspection of Chinese goods to get past the standards that have long been in place in the US.

It's been a great trade off while it lasted...But, the greed and cronyism and lack of standards of the Bushies is finally coming home to roost. It will get worse. We have 17 more months of Bush and the spill over of what they've done will be around for years afterwards.

[BearSquirrel2]

11. 2 things ...

1) We have to start putting tariff on goods from countries that have loathsome labor practices. This means that we can have low tariffs on poor democracies to help enrich them.

2) We have to put especially high tariffs on China.

[aquart]

12. It's not a matter of boycott. We're just avoiding Chinese products.

It's not official or organized. Individually, shoppers are NOT putting Chinese made items in the cart.

[shanti]

13. not a problem

they'll just be sneakier about it! :eyes:

[musette_sf]

17. one fact that i never see discussed

in any of this China stuff, is all the years that Poppy was the Ambassador to China. this has been set up and gamed long ago, folks.

[Seabiscuit]

18. Deja vu all over again.

A new form of Cold War. Beyond their economic threats, and suckering our dummy Pretzeldent into letting them buy $1.3 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds (so Herr Chimpster could afford his tax cuts and pay for his stupid war and his payoffs to Haliburton and other corporate war profiteers) so they could be in a position of dumping them on the market, causing our economy to collapse, they're also trying to kill us off with poisoned food and cause brain damage to our children with lead-based paint on all the children's toys they make for U.S. toy companies. Meanwhile the incompetent cronies in the federal agencies responsible for inspecting such imports have allowed them to go unnoticed for almost 8 years.

And the best Shrubbie can do is to provoke them into threating that "nuclear option" by telling them to float their currency? Hell, the U.S. Dollar is already in trouble - imagine what would happen to the dollar if the Chinese ever carried out their threats? The stock market would collapse and we'd be in worse shape than during the Great Depression.

[ozone_man]

21. Japanese cheap quality 50 years ago

grew into high quality by the 80's. So too will cheap Chinese goods become quality goods as the sun sets on the American empire.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

26. I recently noticed that the "Alaskan" cod at my market comes from China

I never noticed before but my local Stater Brothers market in southern California is selling what they call "Alaskan" cod but that in fine print on the tray it says "product of China". I asked the guy behind the fish counter if it means that it was fish caught by the Chinese in Alaskan waters. He said that it wasn't. He said that it's pond-raised cod from China but they call it "Alaskan".

[THUNDER HANDS]

28. yeah, but you and I both know

that when China starts coming out with Camry-like cars for $5000, people will be lining up to buy them as soon as they come in.

[llmart]

33. What a crock of shit.....

Americans have a love affair with cheap Chinese goods, but they're too stupid to know that they, too, suffer the consequence of wanting cheap gewgaws when they lose their jobs. Just go to any store and watch the idiots scarf up the useless crap as if it's going to make their lives more rewarding.

It always amazes me how people will part with their hard earned money to make someone else richer.

[Eurobabe]

35. Made in China = No ticky no washie

Not in my household.

[depakid]

37. Too bad there's not much choice

Just TRY avoiding Chinese crap- even if it's labeled.

Yet another thing that we can thank the far right and the Vichy Dems for.